The 23 year career of the four-masted schooner James E. Newsom began at her launch on August 23rd, 1919 at the East Coast shipyard in Boothbay Harbor. The spectators in the foreground, men and women, adults and children, all appear to be focused on the anticipated moment as the Newsom slid down the ways.

The 180 foot, 671 ton cargo vessel was sunk by a German submarine on May 1, 1942 on a voyage from the Caribbean to St. John, Newfoundland, evidently carrying a load of salt from the Turks Islands.